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Description
Teen Titans: Uncertainty, the End

(Teen Titans femslash of Raven and Starfire. Don't read if you don't like it)

The fight that followed folded out predictably. Before the battalion of mechanised soldiers had even marched across the road, a truck flew into their midst, knocking the square formation back into a heap of red and grey scrap metal. Those that managed to creak to their feet were met with ironclad punches, blasts of green energy, exploding disks, and just to top off the ensemble of super-powered overkill, a thirty ton brontosaurus landing with a crash upon them. The tanks behind this carnage opened fire.

"You might have survived the climax of the performance, Titans" Mumbo announced, having extricated himself from the jumble of ruined metal that had once been a robot army.
"But the curtain hasn't fallen yet!" he raised his wand, and waving it like a lasso, a stream of multicoloured cloths all wrapped together snapped out like a whip and snatched Raven out of the air. Yanking her over his head and intending to slam her into the road, Mumbo found himself suddenly blasted aside by a concussive blast of green bolts. Rubbing his hatless head, Mumbo looked up with narrow eyes at Starfire. Anyone else might have looked rather alarmed at the sight of her. Her eyes were blazing with emerald fire, and her expression had become uncharacteristically dark.

"You will not hurt Raven!" she yelled. Holding both hands before her, she rained green bolts down upon the magician. Mumbo swept his hand over his white hair. A new top hat appeared, which sucked him headfirst into itself like a vacuum cleaner before the starbolts hit home. He reappeared several feet away, gave a bow, and then vanished again as a second shower of green light blasted apart a public convenience.

"You seem angry, my dear" Starfire spun around, just in time to catch a stuffed teddy bear. Mumbo gave her an ironic salute. Starfire blinked in confusion, but then the bear leaped up in her arms, and shot forth several strong bands of coloured ribbon, strong as steel. The ribbon instantly wrapped her up like a web cocoon as she gave a squeak of fright. Mumbo grinned wickedly, raising his wand, but at that moment Raven appeared like a striking crate, and kicked the wand out of his hand. Mumbo gave a growl of anger, and dodged out of the way of a flurry of kicks and punches.

"Mad Mod's getting away!" Robin yelled, having just dived off an exploding tank. Indeed, the old man was making a surprisingly sprightly way along the docks in the direction of the beach.

"Go!" Raven shouted, sending a kick at Mumbo's legs, which he dodged with a jump. "We'll handle Mumbo!" Robin nodded, and he, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all ran off in pursuit, Beast Boy transforming into a wolf for good measure.

"Want me all for yourself, eh?" Mumbo asked, brushing down his coat. "If I'd known that, my dear, I could have made this a double act"

"She's not alone!" Starfire announced. The smouldering remains of the coloured bands fell away in tongues of green flames, and Mumbo ducked in time to have his new hat skimmed by twin green beams.

"Ahh" Mumbo grinned. "The assistant wants centre stage, eh?" he reached for the flower on his lapel. Instead of a stream of water, a tiny net shot out, rapidly expanded, and wrapped itself around Starfire, weighting her to the ground. With a wave of his magic wand, the net raised itself, and Starfire into the air, and with a puff of smoke, transformed into a large purple, segmented box. Mumbo floated next to it with a wiggle of his shiny black shoes.

"Let her go!" Raven demanded, her eyes flashing. A shower of broken bricks and masonry rose into the air and hurled themselves at Mumbo. He yawned ostentatiously, giving his wand a flick. The shrapnel all lost their black aura, converged into a single point, and then exploded into a flock of doves.

"Now, now, my dear" Mumbo sneered "the show must go on!" he gave the box a tap with his free hand. The box divided itself up. Starfire gave a squeak of shock from inside as the blocks all rearranged themselves. Raven snarled and raised her hands to deliver a second attack, but Mumbo raised a warning finger.
"Ah, ah" he said, irritatingly. "Tricks can be delicate. You wouldn't want anyone getting hurt, would you?" he snapped his fingers. From thin air an array of variously shaped sword popped into existence and positioned themselves aimed at the reformed box. A small slot opened up at the top of the box, showing Starfire's face. She looked as though she were going to vomit.

"No bodily rearrangement, please" Starfire said drunkenly, suppressing a hiccup. Mumbo laughed raucously, and smiled spitefully at Raven.

"Maybe I couldn't have the revenge I wanted, but I shall have some measure of it" Mumbo took up one of the swords.
"About four feet of it as a matter of fact. Yes, let's measure revenge in steel" and with a wicked laugh, he drove the sword toward the box. Raven acted without conscious thought. The sword in Mumbo's hand stopped midway to the box. Mumbo blinked, and tried to move the sword, but it didn't budge. He yanked and groaned, and gave a mighty heave. The sword was surrounded with black energy, and didn't seem to stop there. The glow on it intensified, and before Mumbo could utter more than a surprised yelp, the sword swung around and...

The box disappeared, the other swords likewise. Starfire hovered momentarily, but then still looking rather disorientated, fell out of the sky. Raven caught her a tolerable distance from the ground, and the both of them watched as the two pieces of Mumbo fell to the ground below. The grim effect was rather marred by his top hat falling with the comedic grace akin to cartoon hats in old Looney Toons cartoons, to land lightly on the fallen head.

"Raven..." Starfire said, faintly.

"Yeah?"

"Did you... did you just...?" Raven smiled, which gave Starfire a pain in her heart, until she saw that she was looking down at the ground. Starfire looked as well, and to her astonishment saw Mumbo's body wandering around like a blind man, stumbling around and tripping over Mad Mod's destroyed robots.

"Hey!" Mumbo's head called. "Over here! No, not that way! It's like I'm the only one with brains here" he grumbled. The body turned abruptly, like a dog sensing its master.
"That's right, over here" Mumbo whistled to it, and the body came running. "Yes, you're right on- No! No, no, nooo!" in its enthusiasm, the body came running too fast, and began to slow down too late. Its shiny black shoe connected painfully with Mumbo's protuberant nose, and sent the head flying off across the road, calling out curses as it bounced off a building wall, ricocheted off of a road sign, and then rolled off down the street's incline with the body in hot pursuit.

"You didn't think I'd actually kill someone, did you?" Raven said, a coy smile playing on her face. In all honesty, Starfire could easily answer in the affirmative that question, but feeling her wits coming back to her, she leapt out of Raven's arms and hugged her with her usual gusto. Raven felt her arms bending the wrong way at the elbows, and her ribs beginning to concave, but all in all she bore it well.

"Oh I am so joyous that we are victorious!" Starfire cried. Raven secretly waved a hand and made a sheet of tarp from the destroyed warehouse tie up Mumbo's body, causing it to trip up and roll off down the street after its head.

"Heh, yeah" Raven said, weakly, patting Starfire on the back a little. The heat had risen in her face as she felt the pleasant murmuring within her the hug was giving, but she also felt guilt at those feelings as she remembered that Starfire had not reciprocated them. She gently disengaged herself from Starfire, and held her slightly apart.
"We should go and help the others" she said, trying to smile. Hard enough on any normal occasion, she thought she did it especially bad this time, judging by Starfire's concerned expression.

"Raven, I must tell you something"

"It can wait, can't it? Mad Mod might be-" she had not been looking at Starfire; it had been painful looking into her eyes. It therefore took her entirely by surprise when Starfire had turned Raven's head gently with a hand on either cheek, and kissed her earnestly on the lips.
For the briefest of moments, Raven thought she understood how Mumbo was feeling right now, for she too rather felt like her body had detached from her, too. When Starfire pulled back with a tender sort of smile on her face, Raven had not words to reply with, nor the conscious use of her mouth should she find any.

"It couldn't wait" Starfire said, the slightest hint of humour in her voice. If Raven had been obliged to explain her feelings, she supposed she might compare it to the time Cyborg had beaten her at chess. She was just as pale, just as clammy, and had the exact same feeling of mind-numbing, body-tingling disbelief coursing violently through the sphincters of the capillaries of the blood vessels running all over her, as she had on that occasion. The difference was that whilst that feeling had left her feeling disturbed and confused, this one left her something approximating happy. And confused.
"Come" Starfire said, taking her hand sympathetically. "We can talk about it all later, yes? Right now, we have some friends to help"

-

Their friends, it transpired, did need help. Contrary to the invalid appearance of his body, Mad Mod could run quite fast. He'd made his way some distance down the harbour to the beach whilst being pursued, and had managed to board a ship docked just at the end of the pier. With surprising speed the ship had zipped across the water and trained its... its cannons!? The ship was a small corvette!

"Wait a second..." Cyborg said as they all skidded to a halt on the edge of the pier. A lot of ships were moving now, a lot of ships that looked... familiar.
"Awwww, now that just ain't right..."

"I've said it before, my duckies!" Mad Mod pushed up an admiral's hat on his head as he leaned luxuriously on his cane.
"Those who don't learn from history, are doomed to be surprised by things that happened already!" his husky laugh carried across the water as the entire navy he had used to surround their island only days ago formed around his corvette. Larger ships with double sets of building-shattering guns aligned themselves in formation. it occurred to Robin at least that the blockade attempt had originally been intended to be a diversion the first time.
"Don't tell me you forgot about this little display"

"You'd think we'd remember he had a fleet of battleships hanging around, wouldn't you" Beast Boy said, smacking a hand to his forehead.

"We have to get away from the dock" Robin announced. "We can't risk him firing on the city" Mad Mod seemed to be expecting that. On the decks of the ships stomped more robotic soldiers, and still more tinier ships disgorged from the larger ones, the smaller ones looking like WWII-era style landing craft. Turrets and guns swivelled around, releasing a torrent of noise as portions of the beach exploded. Several far off beach goers ran for it whilst Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all leapt, dodged, and in the case of the latter, transformed into an armadillo and bounced in ball-form out of the way of the oncoming blasts.
"Where are Raven and Starfire?!"

"Think maybe Mumbo's givin' em some trouble?" Cyborg aimed his sonic cannon at a nearby ship, but before he could fire, a shot to his left blew him aside.
"We could sure use the help though!" he shouted, scrambling out of the way of another blast.

"Yeah, don't we know- Waaah!" having just been blasted into a crater, Beast Boy transformed back to human form to try and get out, when a shell came whizzing down to meet him.

Ka-CRUNCH!

A wall of black energy cracked under the strain of the ensuing blast, but Beast Boy was only too glad to see it. From behind the battlefield came a sweeping beam of green light. Mad Mod cried a cockney curse as two of his battleships were sliced down their middles.

"Hey, is Mumbo-?" Robin began as Raven and Starfire landed on the beach.

"The curtain's down" Raven said, swiping a hand in an arc over their heads. A second black barrier of energy stopped several more shells but shattered upon the last. What was more, the first of the troop carriers had made it to the beach. Lines of mechanical soldiers began marching in formation towards them with their guns raised.

"There's little time" Robin said quickly. "Raven, I need you to cover us, deflect or block as many of the incoming shells as you can. Starfire, Cyborg, you two take out the gunships whilst Beast Boy and I stop the soldiers"

"Right!" everyone answered.

The plan worked. At least at first. Raven zoomed upwards, and with a tremendous sweep of black energy, deflected the first wave coming towards them, and without hesitation sent simultaneous bolts to intercept the next barrage. Cyborg grounded himself in the sand and fired off blast after blast at the ships, capsizing them or blowing holes in their hulls. Starfire acted in kind, bolting through the sky like a purple and orange firework, sending successive starbolts into the decks of each boat and causing them to explode in green flames. Beast Boy and Robin charged the tin army, Robin yelling a variety of martial arts calls as he swung his bowstaff and threw multiple birdarangs and exploding discs, Beast Boy transforming into a T-Rex and crushing, tearing, throwing robots every which way.
Mad Mod watched the carnage with a displeased expression.

"Children these days have no respect for their betters" he grumbled as he scratched absently at his ring of grey hair. Casual as you please, he took the bazooka offered him by a nearby mechanical soldier, and taking quick aim he fired a single rocket.
Raven, having been focusing on falling shells, only took stock of the propelled projectile when it was close enough to hear the hiss of its approach.
The kaboom was followed by a scream that made Starfire's heart skip a beat. The sight of a ragged blue robe falling heavily from the air with smoke all around it gave her blood over to such low temperatures her brain went momentarily fuzzy. A moment too long. With a second hiss of a whizzing rocket, a second projectile flew up and exploded right behind her, blowing her across the water to crash and skid in the sand of the beach.

"Raven!"

"Starfire!"

The other Titans converged, but were immediately impeded by a third projectile, which exploded between them. The ships which had been in disarray during the battle were reforming their lines, and the surviving soldiers on the beach were again marching forward, around or over their destroyed comrades, towards them. Within moments the shelling would probably begin again.
Starfire pushed herself up, her arms a little shaky. Remarkably enduring as her people were, she shook off the disorientation of the blast fairly quickly, and looked around. Lying in the sand a little away from her, inert and with blood on her forehead, was Raven.

"Raven..." Starfire said, weakly. She tried to stand up quickly and received a stabbing pain in her head. She took a few steps and collapsed to her knees next to the other, peering down into the pale face. The battle raged around them, but she seemed unconcerned of it. Quickly as her jangled brain would allow, she lay Raven out straight, turned her head up straight and listened for breath. There was none.
"No" she breathed. "No, not you, not now, not like this...!" she pushed her fingers to Raven's neck, then placed both hands upon her sternum. Making sure to restrain her true strength, she pushed down. She heard yells, shouts, entreaties by her friends. She ignored them, pressing down and counting each shove. She felt her neck again. Nothing. She lifted up Raven's head, pinched her nose and without hesitation, breathed air into her unmoving lungs. Once. Twice, Three times. She kept going, then listened for breath. Nothing. She let go of her head, and went back to trying to get her heart working again. Each moment gone by was another moment given over to death, another dying cell in Raven's brain.
"We didn't get to talk about it" Starfire choked. "It can't be that I finally know, only to be denied like this! You can't die!" she pressed down again and again, but Raven stayed limp, unmoving.
"Is your determination to stay alone so great that you'd die to stay away from me?" Starfire screamed. A starbolt flared in her hand, and she hurled it with a shriek at the nearest robot. It flew back with an almighty explosion and crashed into two of its comrades, knocking them back into the water.

"You're too loud..." Starfire looked back down sharply, letting tears fly from her eyes. Giving her an arch look of such familiarity, Raven raised a trembling hand, and put a finger to her lips.
"How do you expect me... to meditate?"

Starfire's insides lit up with such joy, she might have been glowing with it.

"You are alive!" Starfire cried. Raven looked mildly apprehensive, as though she thought Starfire might hug her, which in all fairness would probably have finished her off. Starfire contented herself with simply beaming at her.

"Yeah. Just... just take me over there a little, okay? By the grass" as soon as they were out of gun range, Raven spoke again.
"We have to end this before Mod can start shelling again. I can't stop the barrages like this. I'd..." she paused a moment and winced. "I'd do it myself, but I think I need to lie down a minute. Can you... can you do-"

"What is it you need me to do?" Starfire asked, clutching Raven's hand.

"His cane" she replied, simply. "Get his cane. It probably controls the whole fleet. Destroy his boat if you need to, just stop his control"

"I will" Starfire said seriously. "Whatever it takes, and I'll come back" Raven's face twitched a little. Starfire knew it for a smile, however strained it might be.
"Just don't get hurt while I'm gone" Raven actually gave a short coughing laugh.

"Don't worry. I'm well versed in self healing"

Starfire left her side rather reluctantly. From the air, she looked over Mod's remaining ships, and saw that they had managed to realign themselves around the wreckage of the sunken ones, but his troops on the beach had all but been annihilated by her teammates. She saw in the centre of the fleet, Mad Mod in his ludicrous admiral hat raise his cane to give the order to fire. A surge of anger, of righteous fury surged through Starfire. She was angry at what had happened, angry that Mumbo and Mod had trapped them in a fake world, angry that they'd hurt her friends, and angriest of all that Mod had caused Raven such pain. Caused her, Starfire, the pain of loss. The worst pain a creature of emotion, a Tamaranean could feel. Like a bullet she shot forward. Mad Mod seemed to see her coming, and pointed his cane upwards. The cannons all moved up a little and fired. Shrieks of passing shells, explosions of those detonating around her, Starfire spun and dodged, passing one on her back by an inch as she dived down on a level with the ship. Mod pulled up his bazooka, took aim, and fired. Starfire narrowed her eyes, watched the missile zigzag on its flight path, straighten out and head right for her.
Mad Mod gave a cry of victory, his soldiers all began clapping on the deck as Starfire flew straight at the oncoming ballistic.
Starfire spun herself sideways, and with daredevil precision, grabbed the rocket by its shaft. With a yell of exertion, she swung the missile around, and threw it with all her strength back at the ship. Mad Mod gave a shout and cursed loudly, falling back into the arms of a robot soldier as Starfire gave a yell, and blasted a hole in the side of the ship with her eyebeams. As the ship rocked up from the impact of the laser shot, the missile flew straight into the hole. Mad Mod screamed, several octaves higher than an old man strictly should, as Starfire grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and zoomed upwards from the boat, followed only by the gaze of the robotic deck hands, before the ship went

KABOOM!!

For their part, Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were entirely astonished, and could only gape as Starfire descended to the beach with Mod in one hand, ands tossing down the broken remains of his cane from the other. Dropping him gently to the ground, Starfire let Robin instantly tie him up with his grappling line, but before anyone could say anything of victory or even a classic "Booyah!" from Cyborg, Starfire ran passed them to where Raven lay propped on the edge of the beach.

"Raven!" she cried, landing on her knees beside her. Raven winced.

"Still too loud" she opened one eye a little, and smiled more successfully than last time. "Good job, Starfire. I couldn't have done better" Starfire felt an incomprehensible need to laugh, and began to giggle to herself. Raven looked mildly confused. Starfire didn't elaborate on what she felt was so funny, but simply leaned down and kissed Raven without ceremony.

"Oh" Cyborg said, sounding blankly surprised. "Well... didn't expect that" Robin didn't say anything, but merely blinked a few times, then sighed, and gave a tired looking smile.

"Uh, yeah!" Beast Boy said, eagerly. "Didn't expect it at all, didn't see it coming, am I right?"

No one paid attention to this obvious transparency.

-

Two weeks later, the team carried on, much to Starfire and Raven's surprise, as normal. No villains had bothered to attack since the Mod and Mumbo's imprisonment, and so the team had been able to spend the days as they pleased. Starfire and Raven sat on the roof, a favourite pastime of theirs in recent days when not out to the mall of shopping, or the nearest depressing cafe, looking out over the sound to the beach where their relationship had properly begun. Mad Mod's ships had long since been removed, and peace lay thinly over the city under the orange glow seeping over and through the skyscrapers.
Raven had long been acquainted with happiness, but had never gone so far as to invite him in. Nowadays, she felt happiness as a daily houseguest whenever she was with Starfire, and had found it especially agreeable when at her favourite haunt, the cafe owner and a number of the regulars had congratulated her on "bagging a good catch", as Stan the female impersonator had put it.

"Starfire" Raven said.

"Mmm?" Starfire replied.

"Are you happy? With us, I mean?"

"That's a silly question" Starfire said, easily. Raven felt a slight warmth rise in her face.

"Yeah. I must be hanging around Beast Boy too much, because I enjoyed asking it" they both giggled a little.
"I don't even mind much that he was in my room spying on us"

"Really? Why then did you nearly blow up the tower and send Beast Boy flying from the living room window when he confessed to you of his dreadful deed?" Raven gave a grudging shrug.

"I said I didn't mind much"

"The only thing that could make it better would be for a night time mission" Starfire chuckled. Raven smiled at this, but no sooner had she done so, then the light on her broach and the one on Starfire's shirt began to light up. Suddenly Beast Boy sprang up from the stairwell.

"Come on, you guys!" he called over. "Quit the lovey-dovey and let's go! Control Freak's messin' up the movie theatre, and it's Dredd night!" he finished in anguished tones. Raven looked to Starfire and gave her a knowing look.

"Frankly I expected it to be Dr. Light" she said with a smirk.

-

"Time for a late night showing, folks!"

Control Freak had been in intolerably low spirits since the disappointing show by only two of the Titans in his previous attempt at cinematic conquest, but upon hearing of their defeat of Mod and Mumbo, he had jumped back into the game with renewed vigour. Delaying only two weeks to allow the showing of Dredd to be released, he sprang into action with his remote control at the ready.
With the cinema crawling with living movie characters, he was pleased to find the Titans bursting in through the entrance.

"Not so fast, Control Freak!" he yelled before Robin could say anything. "Yes, yes, I love it! Finally, all of the Teen Titans together, for one glorious battle against their great nemesis, Control Freak!" he looked like he wanted to say more in this vein, but never got the chance as Starfire and Raven, hand-in-hand flew forward.
"Hey, hey, wait a minute!" Control Freak cried. "I haven't finished my dramatic, villainous retort yet!"

"Our apologies" Starfire said, happily.

"We just thought we'd mix things up a little" Raven finished, as the two of them descended into the horde of movie villains.

- The End

Description
Teen Titans: Uncertainty, the End

(Teen Titans femslash of Raven and Starfire. Don't read if you don't like it)

The fight that followed folded out predictably. Before the battalion of mechanised soldiers had even marched across the road, a truck flew into their midst, knocking the square formation back into a heap of red and grey scrap metal. Those that managed to creak to their feet were met with ironclad punches, blasts of green energy, exploding disks, and just to top off the ensemble of super-powered overkill, a thirty ton brontosaurus landing with a crash upon them. The tanks behind this carnage opened fire.

"You might have survived the climax of the performance, Titans" Mumbo announced, having extricated himself from the jumble of ruined metal that had once been a robot army.
"But the curtain hasn't fallen yet!" he raised his wand, and waving it like a lasso, a stream of multicoloured cloths all wrapped together snapped out like a whip and snatched Raven out of the air. Yanking her over his head and intending to slam her into the road, Mumbo found himself suddenly blasted aside by a concussive blast of green bolts. Rubbing his hatless head, Mumbo looked up with narrow eyes at Starfire. Anyone else might have looked rather alarmed at the sight of her. Her eyes were blazing with emerald fire, and her expression had become uncharacteristically dark.

"You will not hurt Raven!" she yelled. Holding both hands before her, she rained green bolts down upon the magician. Mumbo swept his hand over his white hair. A new top hat appeared, which sucked him headfirst into itself like a vacuum cleaner before the starbolts hit home. He reappeared several feet away, gave a bow, and then vanished again as a second shower of green light blasted apart a public convenience.

"You seem angry, my dear" Starfire spun around, just in time to catch a stuffed teddy bear. Mumbo gave her an ironic salute. Starfire blinked in confusion, but then the bear leaped up in her arms, and shot forth several strong bands of coloured ribbon, strong as steel. The ribbon instantly wrapped her up like a web cocoon as she gave a squeak of fright. Mumbo grinned wickedly, raising his wand, but at that moment Raven appeared like a striking crate, and kicked the wand out of his hand. Mumbo gave a growl of anger, and dodged out of the way of a flurry of kicks and punches.

"Mad Mod's getting away!" Robin yelled, having just dived off an exploding tank. Indeed, the old man was making a surprisingly sprightly way along the docks in the direction of the beach.

"Go!" Raven shouted, sending a kick at Mumbo's legs, which he dodged with a jump. "We'll handle Mumbo!" Robin nodded, and he, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all ran off in pursuit, Beast Boy transforming into a wolf for good measure.

"Want me all for yourself, eh?" Mumbo asked, brushing down his coat. "If I'd known that, my dear, I could have made this a double act"

"She's not alone!" Starfire announced. The smouldering remains of the coloured bands fell away in tongues of green flames, and Mumbo ducked in time to have his new hat skimmed by twin green beams.

"Ahh" Mumbo grinned. "The assistant wants centre stage, eh?" he reached for the flower on his lapel. Instead of a stream of water, a tiny net shot out, rapidly expanded, and wrapped itself around Starfire, weighting her to the ground. With a wave of his magic wand, the net raised itself, and Starfire into the air, and with a puff of smoke, transformed into a large purple, segmented box. Mumbo floated next to it with a wiggle of his shiny black shoes.

"Let her go!" Raven demanded, her eyes flashing. A shower of broken bricks and masonry rose into the air and hurled themselves at Mumbo. He yawned ostentatiously, giving his wand a flick. The shrapnel all lost their black aura, converged into a single point, and then exploded into a flock of doves.

"Now, now, my dear" Mumbo sneered "the show must go on!" he gave the box a tap with his free hand. The box divided itself up. Starfire gave a squeak of shock from inside as the blocks all rearranged themselves. Raven snarled and raised her hands to deliver a second attack, but Mumbo raised a warning finger.
"Ah, ah" he said, irritatingly. "Tricks can be delicate. You wouldn't want anyone getting hurt, would you?" he snapped his fingers. From thin air an array of variously shaped sword popped into existence and positioned themselves aimed at the reformed box. A small slot opened up at the top of the box, showing Starfire's face. She looked as though she were going to vomit.

"No bodily rearrangement, please" Starfire said drunkenly, suppressing a hiccup. Mumbo laughed raucously, and smiled spitefully at Raven.

"Maybe I couldn't have the revenge I wanted, but I shall have some measure of it" Mumbo took up one of the swords.
"About four feet of it as a matter of fact. Yes, let's measure revenge in steel" and with a wicked laugh, he drove the sword toward the box. Raven acted without conscious thought. The sword in Mumbo's hand stopped midway to the box. Mumbo blinked, and tried to move the sword, but it didn't budge. He yanked and groaned, and gave a mighty heave. The sword was surrounded with black energy, and didn't seem to stop there. The glow on it intensified, and before Mumbo could utter more than a surprised yelp, the sword swung around and...

The box disappeared, the other swords likewise. Starfire hovered momentarily, but then still looking rather disorientated, fell out of the sky. Raven caught her a tolerable distance from the ground, and the both of them watched as the two pieces of Mumbo fell to the ground below. The grim effect was rather marred by his top hat falling with the comedic grace akin to cartoon hats in old Looney Toons cartoons, to land lightly on the fallen head.

"Raven..." Starfire said, faintly.

"Yeah?"

"Did you... did you just...?" Raven smiled, which gave Starfire a pain in her heart, until she saw that she was looking down at the ground. Starfire looked as well, and to her astonishment saw Mumbo's body wandering around like a blind man, stumbling around and tripping over Mad Mod's destroyed robots.

"Hey!" Mumbo's head called. "Over here! No, not that way! It's like I'm the only one with brains here" he grumbled. The body turned abruptly, like a dog sensing its master.
"That's right, over here" Mumbo whistled to it, and the body came running. "Yes, you're right on- No! No, no, nooo!" in its enthusiasm, the body came running too fast, and began to slow down too late. Its shiny black shoe connected painfully with Mumbo's protuberant nose, and sent the head flying off across the road, calling out curses as it bounced off a building wall, ricocheted off of a road sign, and then rolled off down the street's incline with the body in hot pursuit.

"You didn't think I'd actually kill someone, did you?" Raven said, a coy smile playing on her face. In all honesty, Starfire could easily answer in the affirmative that question, but feeling her wits coming back to her, she leapt out of Raven's arms and hugged her with her usual gusto. Raven felt her arms bending the wrong way at the elbows, and her ribs beginning to concave, but all in all she bore it well.

"Oh I am so joyous that we are victorious!" Starfire cried. Raven secretly waved a hand and made a sheet of tarp from the destroyed warehouse tie up Mumbo's body, causing it to trip up and roll off down the street after its head.

"Heh, yeah" Raven said, weakly, patting Starfire on the back a little. The heat had risen in her face as she felt the pleasant murmuring within her the hug was giving, but she also felt guilt at those feelings as she remembered that Starfire had not reciprocated them. She gently disengaged herself from Starfire, and held her slightly apart.
"We should go and help the others" she said, trying to smile. Hard enough on any normal occasion, she thought she did it especially bad this time, judging by Starfire's concerned expression.

"Raven, I must tell you something"

"It can wait, can't it? Mad Mod might be-" she had not been looking at Starfire; it had been painful looking into her eyes. It therefore took her entirely by surprise when Starfire had turned Raven's head gently with a hand on either cheek, and kissed her earnestly on the lips.
For the briefest of moments, Raven thought she understood how Mumbo was feeling right now, for she too rather felt like her body had detached from her, too. When Starfire pulled back with a tender sort of smile on her face, Raven had not words to reply with, nor the conscious use of her mouth should she find any.

"It couldn't wait" Starfire said, the slightest hint of humour in her voice. If Raven had been obliged to explain her feelings, she supposed she might compare it to the time Cyborg had beaten her at chess. She was just as pale, just as clammy, and had the exact same feeling of mind-numbing, body-tingling disbelief coursing violently through the sphincters of the capillaries of the blood vessels running all over her, as she had on that occasion. The difference was that whilst that feeling had left her feeling disturbed and confused, this one left her something approximating happy. And confused.
"Come" Starfire said, taking her hand sympathetically. "We can talk about it all later, yes? Right now, we have some friends to help"

-

Their friends, it transpired, did need help. Contrary to the invalid appearance of his body, Mad Mod could run quite fast. He'd made his way some distance down the harbour to the beach whilst being pursued, and had managed to board a ship docked just at the end of the pier. With surprising speed the ship had zipped across the water and trained its... its cannons!? The ship was a small corvette!

"Wait a second..." Cyborg said as they all skidded to a halt on the edge of the pier. A lot of ships were moving now, a lot of ships that looked... familiar.
"Awwww, now that just ain't right..."

"I've said it before, my duckies!" Mad Mod pushed up an admiral's hat on his head as he leaned luxuriously on his cane.
"Those who don't learn from history, are doomed to be surprised by things that happened already!" his husky laugh carried across the water as the entire navy he had used to surround their island only days ago formed around his corvette. Larger ships with double sets of building-shattering guns aligned themselves in formation. it occurred to Robin at least that the blockade attempt had originally been intended to be a diversion the first time.
"Don't tell me you forgot about this little display"

"You'd think we'd remember he had a fleet of battleships hanging around, wouldn't you" Beast Boy said, smacking a hand to his forehead.

"We have to get away from the dock" Robin announced. "We can't risk him firing on the city" Mad Mod seemed to be expecting that. On the decks of the ships stomped more robotic soldiers, and still more tinier ships disgorged from the larger ones, the smaller ones looking like WWII-era style landing craft. Turrets and guns swivelled around, releasing a torrent of noise as portions of the beach exploded. Several far off beach goers ran for it whilst Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all leapt, dodged, and in the case of the latter, transformed into an armadillo and bounced in ball-form out of the way of the oncoming blasts.
"Where are Raven and Starfire?!"

"Think maybe Mumbo's givin' em some trouble?" Cyborg aimed his sonic cannon at a nearby ship, but before he could fire, a shot to his left blew him aside.
"We could sure use the help though!" he shouted, scrambling out of the way of another blast.

"Yeah, don't we know- Waaah!" having just been blasted into a crater, Beast Boy transformed back to human form to try and get out, when a shell came whizzing down to meet him.

Ka-CRUNCH!

A wall of black energy cracked under the strain of the ensuing blast, but Beast Boy was only too glad to see it. From behind the battlefield came a sweeping beam of green light. Mad Mod cried a cockney curse as two of his battleships were sliced down their middles.

"Hey, is Mumbo-?" Robin began as Raven and Starfire landed on the beach.

"The curtain's down" Raven said, swiping a hand in an arc over their heads. A second black barrier of energy stopped several more shells but shattered upon the last. What was more, the first of the troop carriers had made it to the beach. Lines of mechanical soldiers began marching in formation towards them with their guns raised.

"There's little time" Robin said quickly. "Raven, I need you to cover us, deflect or block as many of the incoming shells as you can. Starfire, Cyborg, you two take out the gunships whilst Beast Boy and I stop the soldiers"

"Right!" everyone answered.

The plan worked. At least at first. Raven zoomed upwards, and with a tremendous sweep of black energy, deflected the first wave coming towards them, and without hesitation sent simultaneous bolts to intercept the next barrage. Cyborg grounded himself in the sand and fired off blast after blast at the ships, capsizing them or blowing holes in their hulls. Starfire acted in kind, bolting through the sky like a purple and orange firework, sending successive starbolts into the decks of each boat and causing them to explode in green flames. Beast Boy and Robin charged the tin army, Robin yelling a variety of martial arts calls as he swung his bowstaff and threw multiple birdarangs and exploding discs, Beast Boy transforming into a T-Rex and crushing, tearing, throwing robots every which way.
Mad Mod watched the carnage with a displeased expression.

"Children these days have no respect for their betters" he grumbled as he scratched absently at his ring of grey hair. Casual as you please, he took the bazooka offered him by a nearby mechanical soldier, and taking quick aim he fired a single rocket.
Raven, having been focusing on falling shells, only took stock of the propelled projectile when it was close enough to hear the hiss of its approach.
The kaboom was followed by a scream that made Starfire's heart skip a beat. The sight of a ragged blue robe falling heavily from the air with smoke all around it gave her blood over to such low temperatures her brain went momentarily fuzzy. A moment too long. With a second hiss of a whizzing rocket, a second projectile flew up and exploded right behind her, blowing her across the water to crash and skid in the sand of the beach.

"Raven!"

"Starfire!"

The other Titans converged, but were immediately impeded by a third projectile, which exploded between them. The ships which had been in disarray during the battle were reforming their lines, and the surviving soldiers on the beach were again marching forward, around or over their destroyed comrades, towards them. Within moments the shelling would probably begin again.
Starfire pushed herself up, her arms a little shaky. Remarkably enduring as her people were, she shook off the disorientation of the blast fairly quickly, and looked around. Lying in the sand a little away from her, inert and with blood on her forehead, was Raven.

"Raven..." Starfire said, weakly. She tried to stand up quickly and received a stabbing pain in her head. She took a few steps and collapsed to her knees next to the other, peering down into the pale face. The battle raged around them, but she seemed unconcerned of it. Quickly as her jangled brain would allow, she lay Raven out straight, turned her head up straight and listened for breath. There was none.
"No" she breathed. "No, not you, not now, not like this...!" she pushed her fingers to Raven's neck, then placed both hands upon her sternum. Making sure to restrain her true strength, she pushed down. She heard yells, shouts, entreaties by her friends. She ignored them, pressing down and counting each shove. She felt her neck again. Nothing. She lifted up Raven's head, pinched her nose and without hesitation, breathed air into her unmoving lungs. Once. Twice, Three times. She kept going, then listened for breath. Nothing. She let go of her head, and went back to trying to get her heart working again. Each moment gone by was another moment given over to death, another dying cell in Raven's brain.
"We didn't get to talk about it" Starfire choked. "It can't be that I finally know, only to be denied like this! You can't die!" she pressed down again and again, but Raven stayed limp, unmoving.
"Is your determination to stay alone so great that you'd die to stay away from me?" Starfire screamed. A starbolt flared in her hand, and she hurled it with a shriek at the nearest robot. It flew back with an almighty explosion and crashed into two of its comrades, knocking them back into the water.

"You're too loud..." Starfire looked back down sharply, letting tears fly from her eyes. Giving her an arch look of such familiarity, Raven raised a trembling hand, and put a finger to her lips.
"How do you expect me... to meditate?"

Starfire's insides lit up with such joy, she might have been glowing with it.

"You are alive!" Starfire cried. Raven looked mildly apprehensive, as though she thought Starfire might hug her, which in all fairness would probably have finished her off. Starfire contented herself with simply beaming at her.

"Yeah. Just... just take me over there a little, okay? By the grass" as soon as they were out of gun range, Raven spoke again.
"We have to end this before Mod can start shelling again. I can't stop the barrages like this. I'd..." she paused a moment and winced. "I'd do it myself, but I think I need to lie down a minute. Can you... can you do-"

"What is it you need me to do?" Starfire asked, clutching Raven's hand.

"His cane" she replied, simply. "Get his cane. It probably controls the whole fleet. Destroy his boat if you need to, just stop his control"

"I will" Starfire said seriously. "Whatever it takes, and I'll come back" Raven's face twitched a little. Starfire knew it for a smile, however strained it might be.
"Just don't get hurt while I'm gone" Raven actually gave a short coughing laugh.

"Don't worry. I'm well versed in self healing"

Starfire left her side rather reluctantly. From the air, she looked over Mod's remaining ships, and saw that they had managed to realign themselves around the wreckage of the sunken ones, but his troops on the beach had all but been annihilated by her teammates. She saw in the centre of the fleet, Mad Mod in his ludicrous admiral hat raise his cane to give the order to fire. A surge of anger, of righteous fury surged through Starfire. She was angry at what had happened, angry that Mumbo and Mod had trapped them in a fake world, angry that they'd hurt her friends, and angriest of all that Mod had caused Raven such pain. Caused her, Starfire, the pain of loss. The worst pain a creature of emotion, a Tamaranean could feel. Like a bullet she shot forward. Mad Mod seemed to see her coming, and pointed his cane upwards. The cannons all moved up a little and fired. Shrieks of passing shells, explosions of those detonating around her, Starfire spun and dodged, passing one on her back by an inch as she dived down on a level with the ship. Mod pulled up his bazooka, took aim, and fired. Starfire narrowed her eyes, watched the missile zigzag on its flight path, straighten out and head right for her.
Mad Mod gave a cry of victory, his soldiers all began clapping on the deck as Starfire flew straight at the oncoming ballistic.
Starfire spun herself sideways, and with daredevil precision, grabbed the rocket by its shaft. With a yell of exertion, she swung the missile around, and threw it with all her strength back at the ship. Mad Mod gave a shout and cursed loudly, falling back into the arms of a robot soldier as Starfire gave a yell, and blasted a hole in the side of the ship with her eyebeams. As the ship rocked up from the impact of the laser shot, the missile flew straight into the hole. Mad Mod screamed, several octaves higher than an old man strictly should, as Starfire grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and zoomed upwards from the boat, followed only by the gaze of the robotic deck hands, before the ship went

KABOOM!!

For their part, Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were entirely astonished, and could only gape as Starfire descended to the beach with Mod in one hand, ands tossing down the broken remains of his cane from the other. Dropping him gently to the ground, Starfire let Robin instantly tie him up with his grappling line, but before anyone could say anything of victory or even a classic "Booyah!" from Cyborg, Starfire ran passed them to where Raven lay propped on the edge of the beach.

"Raven!" she cried, landing on her knees beside her. Raven winced.

"Still too loud" she opened one eye a little, and smiled more successfully than last time. "Good job, Starfire. I couldn't have done better" Starfire felt an incomprehensible need to laugh, and began to giggle to herself. Raven looked mildly confused. Starfire didn't elaborate on what she felt was so funny, but simply leaned down and kissed Raven without ceremony.

"Oh" Cyborg said, sounding blankly surprised. "Well... didn't expect that" Robin didn't say anything, but merely blinked a few times, then sighed, and gave a tired looking smile.

"Uh, yeah!" Beast Boy said, eagerly. "Didn't expect it at all, didn't see it coming, am I right?"

No one paid attention to this obvious transparency.

-

Two weeks later, the team carried on, much to Starfire and Raven's surprise, as normal. No villains had bothered to attack since the Mod and Mumbo's imprisonment, and so the team had been able to spend the days as they pleased. Starfire and Raven sat on the roof, a favourite pastime of theirs in recent days when not out to the mall of shopping, or the nearest depressing cafe, looking out over the sound to the beach where their relationship had properly begun. Mad Mod's ships had long since been removed, and peace lay thinly over the city under the orange glow seeping over and through the skyscrapers.
Raven had long been acquainted with happiness, but had never gone so far as to invite him in. Nowadays, she felt happiness as a daily houseguest whenever she was with Starfire, and had found it especially agreeable when at her favourite haunt, the cafe owner and a number of the regulars had congratulated her on "bagging a good catch", as Stan the female impersonator had put it.

"Starfire" Raven said.

"Mmm?" Starfire replied.

"Are you happy? With us, I mean?"

"That's a silly question" Starfire said, easily. Raven felt a slight warmth rise in her face.

"Yeah. I must be hanging around Beast Boy too much, because I enjoyed asking it" they both giggled a little.
"I don't even mind much that he was in my room spying on us"

"Really? Why then did you nearly blow up the tower and send Beast Boy flying from the living room window when he confessed to you of his dreadful deed?" Raven gave a grudging shrug.

"I said I didn't mind much"

"The only thing that could make it better would be for a night time mission" Starfire chuckled. Raven smiled at this, but no sooner had she done so, then the light on her broach and the one on Starfire's shirt began to light up. Suddenly Beast Boy sprang up from the stairwell.

"Come on, you guys!" he called over. "Quit the lovey-dovey and let's go! Control Freak's messin' up the movie theatre, and it's Dredd night!" he finished in anguished tones. Raven looked to Starfire and gave her a knowing look.

"Frankly I expected it to be Dr. Light" she said with a smirk.

-

"Time for a late night showing, folks!"

Control Freak had been in intolerably low spirits since the disappointing show by only two of the Titans in his previous attempt at cinematic conquest, but upon hearing of their defeat of Mod and Mumbo, he had jumped back into the game with renewed vigour. Delaying only two weeks to allow the showing of Dredd to be released, he sprang into action with his remote control at the ready.
With the cinema crawling with living movie characters, he was pleased to find the Titans bursting in through the entrance.

"Not so fast, Control Freak!" he yelled before Robin could say anything. "Yes, yes, I love it! Finally, all of the Teen Titans together, for one glorious battle against their great nemesis, Control Freak!" he looked like he wanted to say more in this vein, but never got the chance as Starfire and Raven, hand-in-hand flew forward.
"Hey, hey, wait a minute!" Control Freak cried. "I haven't finished my dramatic, villainous retort yet!"

"Our apologies" Starfire said, happily.

"We just thought we'd mix things up a little" Raven finished, as the two of them descended into the horde of movie villains.

- The End